Family still mourns loss of worker killed in Louisville chemical leak

Mar. 7, 2014

DeAnna Corbin, center poses with her daughters Abigail Corbin, 29, left and Jennifer (Jenny) Corbin, 31, outside of their Jacksonville, Florida home, Saturday February 1, 2014. DeAnna's ex-husband and the two sisters father Robert Lee Corbin was killed in an industrial accident in Louisville, Kentucky in 2009. A little over a year following his death, the family decided to move to Jacksonville, Florida because they felt they needed a change. 'It was a spiritual thing, we felt like the Wise Men and we were led there,' said DeAnna as she describes how the family came to the decision to move.(Kelly Jordan, For The Courier-Journal) / Kelly Jordan

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The Courier-Journal

The late Robert Corbin with his daughter, Jennifer, displaying their Kentucky State Fair award-winning cookies in 1998. THE COURIER-JOURNAL.

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They have found new lives in Florida, but the family members of Robert Corbin, one of two men killed on the job during a Louisville chemical disaster in 2009, still mourn his loss.

“He loved John Wayne, and he raised my sister and I, not on a lot of money,” said Abigail Corbin, who works for a security company in Jacksonville, Fla. “He supported us when we were low income so my mom could home-school us. ... We lost our loved one. We lost our dad. He will be missed.”

In the past 10 years, they were the only two deaths caused by chemical leaks at Louisville businesses covered under the Clean Air Act’s risk management planning program. In all, 21 companies are currently in the program because they use and store large quantities of toxic or flammable chemicals.

Four of the 21 companies’ risk management plans listed accidents including two at American Cold Storage — a 2007 ammonia release that injured three workers. It also reported the one in 2009 that killed Corbin, 59, and co-worker Damon Shanks, 34.

The maintenance workers died inside a refrigerated warehouse in the 600 block of Industry Road, after Shanks removed an unmarked valve on a line carrying ammonia gas, state occupational safety officials found.

After an investigation, the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s Occupational Safety and Health Program found the company should have marked the pipe and valve so anyone working there would know it was carrying deadly ammonia.

State officials subsequently fined the company $17,500 for four worker-safety violations. The company appealed, and later agreed to pay $8,000 for three violations.

Terry J. McClaflin, vice president of operations for American Cold Storage, said company officials would not comment.

Corbin left behind two adult daughters and a former wife, all of whom said the state fine was far too small, given the loss of two lives.

“You hear about OSHA, and you think they have some teeth,” Abigail Corbin said. “We just didn’t feel that was the case. We don’t think justice was served.”

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Kentucky law limits occupational safety penalties, which are not meant to make up for a family’s loss, said Evan Satterwhite, compliance director with the Labor Cabinet.

The Courier-Journal was unable to locate Shank’s family.

The plant’s risk plan identifies a chemical danger zone of about 1 mile radius, encompassing about 13,000 residents. The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District in 2012 found 16 deficiencies in American Cold Storage’s risk plan, but decided not to issue a fine after the company came into compliance, said Tom Nord, spokesman for the district.

“The company replaced the equipment involved in the 2009 incident with a new system that uses less ammonia, and installed ammonia detectors that go beyond what is required,” Nord said.

Abigail Corbin, sister Jennifer Corbin, and their mother, DeAnna Corbin, said they moved from Louisville to Jacksonvilleafter Robert Corbin’s death, looking for job opportunities and peace of mind. DeAnna Corbin is retired, and Jennifer Corbin works at a home-improvement store.

“We made the decision to move on, for our mental health, and our lives are now good,” Jennifer Corbin said.

But they said they remain deeply scarred about what happened the afternoon of May 13, 2009.

A Navy veteran, Lexington native and University of Kentucky fan, Robert Corbin was a forklift operator and maintenance worker with the company for 17 years, according to his former wife of 31 years, DeAnna Corbin.

“He was a good worker,” she said of the man she divorced about a year before he died. “... He really liked his job. He liked the guys he worked with.”

Corbin and Shanks were killed shortly before their shift ended, she said. According to documents the company filed with state and local agencies, Shanks was assigned to change an ethylene gycol pump, with Corbin tasked to operate a lift.

Both men were found near the source of the leak.

“Based on the available information from the fire department, it appears Mr. Corbin was attempting to assist the escape of Mr. Shanks when he was overcome with ammonia vapors,” the company told state officials.

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Incident reports describe how both workers had to be decontaminated before being taken to the hospital.

“It is just an ugly way to die, for sure,” DeAnna Corbin said.

In a telephone interview, Corbin’s family members recalled going to the hospital on the day of the accident.

“We expected Robert would be in there with a Band-aid and a bandage, saying they all were making a big deal out of nothing,” DeAnna Corbin said.

But when they arrived, some of his coworkers were there too. “A lot of them were good old country boys, and when we saw a couple of them ... crying, we knew something was up” she said.

A chaplain led them to a private room. The doctors came in and said he was dead.

The Corbins said dealing with American Cold Storage was difficult.

Nobody from the company ever said they were sorry for what happened, the Corbins said. Robert Corbin’s co-workers stopped talking to them because, the workers told them, they had been instructed to stay away.

They also ran into roadblocks trying to deal with an insurance claim and pick up Robert Corbin’s car, Abigail Corbin said.

She said they spoke with attorneys and found out that, even though there had been worker safety violations, Kentucky law strictly limited the compensation for their loss under workers’ compensation. The Corbins said that amount ended up being $64,500.

Louisville attorney Alex C. Davis did not advise the Corbins but has handled other workers’ compensation cases involving employees killed on the job. Because of state law, a worker who dies on the job can receive far less compensation than one who is injured and survives, he said.

“It’s incredibly sad,” Davis said. “The law provides for a lump-sum payment in the event of death, and that’s pretty much all you get. The amount is adjusted annually. For 2013, it was $73,934.”

DeAnna Corbin said her former husband knew the risks of working with ammonia. She said he would also complain about the work conditions in the warehouse.

“Robert said to us, ‘It would take millions of dollars to get this place where it needs to be, and when it goes bad, it will go real bad.’ ”